This disclosure relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method and a computer-readable storage medium.
A touch panel is popularly used in a ticketing apparatus for transportation, an ATM (automatic teller machine) of a bank and so forth because it can be used to implement a user interface which is intuitive and easy to use. In recent years, the touch panel can detect an operation of a user and can be used to implement operation of an apparatus different from an operation of buttons. Therefore, in recent years, a touch panel is used frequently in portable apparatus such as a portable telephone set or a game machine. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-55455 discloses an information processing apparatus which makes it possible for a user to confirm a plurality of images efficiently by a user interface which uses a touch panel and to carry out a confirmation operation simply, conveniently and intuitively.
However, in a touch panel in the past, the information of a finger which can be detected is only a state of a finger in which the finger contacts with the touch panel. Therefore, until after a finger is brought into contact with the touch panel, the apparatus cannot be operated. Further, the user cannot recognize what process is to be executed when a finger contacts with the touch panel until after it contacts at a finger thereof with the touch panel.
Meanwhile, in order to confirm the plurality of screens efficiently, as a user interface which can improve the overlooking property upon browsing of a content and can be rapidly grasped generally, a thumbnail representation is effective. However, there is a problem that, in the case where the thumbnail representation is used, if a large number of contents are involved, then it is difficult for a user to grasp unity of contents related to each other and use a hierarchical overlooking state of the contents. Otherwise if a plurality of contents are treated as a group and aggregated into a folder or a thumbnail representation, then a macroscopic overlooking property can be improved. However, in the case where an aggregated representation of a content group is used, it is difficult to overlook individual contents.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a novel and improved information processing apparatus, information processing method, and computer-readable storage medium which allow a user to understand a relationship between a variation of a user interface and an operation of the user readily and can be operated intuitively.